Old Woman I opens the gate.
The two porters bring in the chair.
Hajji gets out, bent double, and trembling.
He pays the porters: they withdraw.
The Old Woman says: “Who are you?”
| Hajji. | Hajji throws back the shawl.
He reveals himself, asks for food and his daughter. |
| Old Woman I. | “Hajji!”
Hajji explains that he must escape:
Leave the city at once.
Too long to explain.
He can never come to Bagdad again.
Old Woman to bring his daughter at once.
Old Woman says she has just taken daughter to Executioner’s house.
Hajji: “I said not before sundown”
“It is sundown.”
Hajji curses Old Woman.
Says that it is her fault that he took his daughter to Executioner.
“My fault?” says she.
“Yes! You urged me on.
You agreed with me.
If I have lost her, you are to blame.
But I can’t lose her.
I must risk everything.
I must get her out of his clutches.”
Where did Old Woman leave her?
With principal wife.
An idea!
He had appointment with wife in bath at moon rise—
He will go.
If it costs him his life, he must try to get his daughter.
He goes to door; as he does so, there is knocking at door from without.
They have found him.
What shall he do?
Old Woman opens lattice in Courtyard.
“Escape that way!
When I was young many a time my
lover came through that window.”
Hajji off through window.
More knocking at door.
Old Woman opens. |
Sultan.
Vizier
and a Guard.
Old Woman. | Sultan enters, splendidly attired.
Has come to claim his bride.
Old Woman amazed.
Is he not the Sultan?
She has seen him the day of his entry into the town.
Sultan: “You have guessed. Bring forth Zira!”
Alas! Zira not here.
At Executioner’s house.
Her father has destined her for Executioner.
Sultan furious.
When was she taken there?
Not an hour ago.
Sultan will go to Executioner’s house.
The Old Woman I is to lead the way and show the entrance she took the girl to.
Curtain. |
SCENE 2
[In the play Act III begins here.]
The Bath in the Executioner’s house. (Large set.)
Up five marble steps (almost fifteen feet up stage) a colonnade. Beyond it a courtyard, with a large swimming bath. The front part of the stage, couches and pierced screens. Door right to women’s apartments, door left to men’s apartments.